Ah, tomatoes how we love them, how we fuss over them, how we crave them, plan them, nurture them, savor them and … yes, hate them, sometimes. Especially in a year like this one (or last year) when the weather (cold, hail, heat, more cold) did its best to thwart everyone’s tomato ambitions. But there was no thwarting for six lucky Front Range gardeners at the annual Nature Sweet Home-Grown Tomato Contest last Saturday morning in the parking lot of the Arvada King Soopers’.

Large tomatoes await judging

Nature Sweet is a commercial tomato grower out of San Antonio, Texas — but they love tomatoes enough to know that a rising tomato-red tide can lift all boats. So they do this contest every year just to celebrate the ambition of tomato gardeners and the wide world of this little red fruit.

Eight-seven people brought their tomatoes to be Brix-tested — a way of measuring the tomato’s sugar level with a little gizmo called a refractometer — and then three finalists in both large and small were taste-tested by a panel of judges that I was lucky enough to be on again.

The winners in each of the two categories got $2,500, and runners-up received $250 King Soopers’ gift cards. The winners (drum roll for wooden spoon and stock pot, please!)

Brix testing a tomato

Large tomato: Mary Burroughs of Denver with a Cherokee Purple tomato that took me right back to my grandfather’s central Illinois farm with its big, round, gardeny beefsteak flavor. (Oh, the platefuls of garden tomatoes we devoured back then…)

Runners up: Mary Lucero of Lafayette with a “Super Fantastic” (the variety that took first place last year, folks) and Matt Brandt of Longmont (who also was a runner-up last year) with a beautiful yellow-red “Mr. Stripey.”)

Small tomatoes: These babies are the sugar rush of the tomato world. The sugar level on a typical Nature Sweet cherry tomato is about 8; one of the cherry finalists rang the sugar bell above 12! Now that’s a sweet tomato! First place went to Veronica Gonzalez of Arvada, with a Sungold that I would have sworn had been dipped in wine before they cut it. Sweet, sweet, sweet, with a winey acid balance that hit me in the pit of the stomach like a first kiss or a swig of beer after a hot day of hoeing. Runners up were Lynne Milane of Erie, with a red cherry; and Jamie Steenport of Longmont with another Sungold.

Also that morning, Chef Tony Baumann and his daughter and business partner, Sam Baumann, were on hand to feed the crowd samples of tomato dishes — and give me some tips on taming garlic.

Tony and Sam had a great skilletful of sauteed cherry tomatoes with just the lightest coating of mild garlic flavor — which is how I think it should be. I like garlic, but I don’t want my taste buds to have to wear a hazmat suit.

Chef Tony Baumann of B&B Culinary Creations

Baumann says to add crushed fresh garlic at the end of cooking — and keep it on the (medium) heat only until you can begin to smell it. Or blanch it first — a couple of minutes in a cup of water from a teakettle, then a dip in ice water to stop that cooking process. Or, adds his daughter, blanch it in milk — milk no warmer than you’d put in a baby’s bottle (that would be about 110 degrees, adds her dad). Add the basil even later. (If you grow garlic, or know someone who does, that’s the best way to get it mild — cook it right out of the garden.)

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a saute pan over medium-high flame until it just starts to smoke. Ad tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Saute, shaking the pan frequently, until tomatoes soften and skins just begin to wrinkle, about 2 minutes. Stir in the garlic and continue to shake the pan until the garlic is fragrant. Remove from heat, stir in the basil and remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil, then serve. Add shavings of cheese if desired.

(Chef Tony adds that you can add a pound of cooked, bite-size pasta at the garlic stage, or the pasta and a pound of julienned grilled chicken breast, to make this a main dish).

The Nature Sweet folks won’t mind if you substitute your own winning home-grown tomatoes. Really. If you’ve got ’em, this is a great way to use them.

It was gardening karma that when I was craving some summer warmth, my life produced an occasion to visit Tucson, Ariz., where they know from heat. Where they know from getting along on minimal water. And where they know from totally crazy blooming things. My sister and I played hooky from my dad’s hospital bedside (OK, he sent us away so he could actually rest) and visited Tohono Chul, a 49-acre botanic park on the city’s northwest side. Despite getting there around 11 a.m., we still had plenty of company (just click to enlarge the photos).
lizards,

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immature Coopers’ hawks,

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and fish in a lovely little pond,

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The garden’s claim to fame in summer is the night-blooming cereus, which pops open a big, fat, white, intensely fragrant blossom, but only for a single night and usually only once a season. This year, it’s suspected that this species, also known as Queen of the Night and deer-horn cactus (Cereus greggii) will bloom a second time — this very weekend! But until it does, it pretty much looks like dead sticks:

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Flower fans stay tuned to the garden’s website to check on when the blossoms will open. When they do, the garden stays open at night and sets out luminaria to mark the path.
And of course, there are other beautiful aspects of the garden — bizarre blooming trees like Texas olive (Cordia boissieri)

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eggplants and other veggies being grown in repurposed stock-tank raised beds (Arizona, like us, has soil issues)

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and just overall gorgeousness in design, like this vine-draped arched doorway that leads out onto sunnier pathways.

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Tohono Chul was named one of the world’s 10 best gardens by Travel and Leisure magazine. So if you’re a Rockies training camp widow, a desert biker, or just a garden-variety garden fan who likes the desert, it’s a must-see.

They grow in Texas. They grow in Alaska (well, OK, I’m guessin’.) Oh, did they ever grow in the chocolate-cake-crumble soil of my grandfather’s central Illinois farm. If you grow vegetables, you’re sure to have a few to a zillion, in pots on a porch (my mom) in grow boxes in the back yard (my chiropracter) in 50-plant rows (Virginia locavore extraordinaire Barbara Kingsolver). There’s even a song about home-grown tomatoes, written by Guy Clark and covered by Colorado’s very own John Denver.

But this year has NOT been nice to nightshades. I’m hearing tell of plentiful blossoms and scarce fruit. Or puny plants and no fruit. Or fruit that won’t see red. My chiropracter’s plants are producing tomato tonnage from tree-sized specimens in plastic tubs that his Nebraska relatives brought him, already planted and ready to zoom upward. I suspect those tubs kept the soil warm in our cool spring and maybe gave them a head start, or maybe it’s just Dr. Guy’s squeaky-clean healer karma. My own tomatoes are either of the puny-plant or almost-no-fruit variety. Fellow blogger Kitt brought me in some fruits from the Stupice plant I gave her; they’re small, but yummy. Firm, sweet, not too watery, delectably tangy. So it’s not the variety’s fault.

Anyway, to console, or congratulate, as the case may be, all you tomato growers out there, I’m giving a prize away to the best tomato tale — bonus points for pictures — emailed to me at sclotfelter@denverpost.com by Friday, Aug. 15. The criteria are simple: verse or prose or recipe or all three; send pix if you got ’em; and oh, my pals from work and my personal life aren’t eligible (sorry, buds). Yes, it’s a cheesy ploy to bring you blog-lurkers out in the open. I’ll publish the best on Digging In. And the criteria are completely subjective. If Features Editor Dana Coffield or foodies Kris Browning or Tucker Shaw come into some garden goodies they want to donate to the cause, there could be additional prizes.

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The prize, so far, is a copy of Tim Stark’s “Heirloom: Tales from an Accidental Tomato Farmer.” Stark’s account of his transformation from NYC consultant to market gardener and supplier to top-flight chefs is raucous and rollicking and infused with tomatoes (and chiles and elderflowers and wine, oh my.) If you thought YOU had overplanted tomatoes, Tim’s story will comfort and amuse you. If tomatoes vine and burgeon through your waking and sleeping dreams, you’re SO not alone.

But wait: for those of you who ARE getting fruit (and I am pausing to hate you now) there’s an even bigger prize out there: $2,500. That’s a LOT of tomatoes, kids, and all you’ve got to do is bring them to the Longmont King Soopers on Saturday, Aug. 23, for the NatureSweet Best Homegrown Tomato Challenge. Details and registration stuff here, but the important detail bears repeating: The grand prize is $2,500! And there’ll be two of those big fat checks, in both the full-size and small-tomato categories. Two runners-up in each category will win $250 grocery certificates, and even that ain’t mulch money. Got no fruit at all? There’s a sweepstakes that lets you try for some green without even getting your hands dirty.

Your favorite garden blogger is one of the three judges, and … from the way my plants are looking, it’s pretty unlikely that I’ll be tired of tomatoes any time soon.

In honor of my having made my appointment to have my lawn aerated core cultivated, I thought I’d graze a little more on the subject of turf with Tony Koski, Ph.D., CSU’s turfgrass guru, or, as Boulder County Master Gardener Coordinator Carol O’Meara calls him, the rock star of lawn science, mentioned in my last post. He has me so hooked on the idea that my lawn can look good, I was SHOPPING for it on line. Yes, what was once frustrating is now fascinating because I have discovered I can shop for it. Commenter Kitt pointed out that she LOVES her electric mower — no gas, no fumes, low maint — and now I’ve discovered they’re making the little suckers CUTE. I kid you not, CUTE. Check out neutonmowers.com if you don’t believe me — that new model has to be the Volkswagen Beetle of mowers. Fifty bucks says next year, somebody makes an electric mower in colors to match your iPod.

But back to Tony Koski talking about growing the stuff.

Q: You seem to be a “don’t blame the bluegrass” kind of guy.

A: It’s just easy to pick on because it’s so prevalent. Kentucky bluegrass is the most widely used grass out there, so if people have problems, most of them are going to be with bluegrass. Actually a greater percentage of the calls I get are people who are having problems with buffalo grass. Kentucky bluegrass isn’t native, and there’s a bias against non-native species. I like to concentrate not so much on the species, but the fact that you’ve got this plant, and what’s the best way to care for it? Minor adjustments in irrigation, in fertilization, can make a big difference. And people get lazy with irrigation; they tend to water more than is needed. But people found out that their bluegrass stuck around under the much more stringent watering restrictions we had during the drought.
A lot of it is learning how much you can cut back. Kentucky bluegrass doesn’t have to be a high-maintenance lawn unless you want it to look like a golf course.
During the drought, everybody wanted to convert their lawns right then – and that’s the worst time to do it. Buffalo grass is drought-tolerant, but not in its first year or two. So we had to rein people in.

Q: Talk about the new drought-tolerant bluegrasses and the Texas hybrid bluegrasses. What’s the difference in the home lawn? Is one better than the other?

A: The new Kentucky bluegrasses have much deeper roots. You can get them in sod. Our sod growers here are very advanced and up to date; they want something that’s going to perform well for people.
The Texas hybrids are different; they’re a part native that is very heat tolerant and deeper rooted. Part of its genetics is from the prairies of Texas, and those deep roots are how it survives. It’s both heat-tolerant and drought-resistant. It will go dormant, but it’ll survive. Bandera is a recommended variety from Seed Research of Oregon; Arkansas Valley Seed sells it to garden centers here.
(There’s a Colorado dealer locater map at http://www.avseeds.com/DealerLocator/default.aspx?state=co&SearchType=MR)

Q: What’s the first thing a first-time homeowner should do for their lawn this spring?

A: The first thing is core cultivation (the people who do it for you will call it aeration). Do it once and fertilize; just find a fertilizer with good instructions on how to set your spreader. I suggest people get a lawn-care company; check their references and the Better Business Bureau before you contract with one. Also check the Colorado Association of Lawn Care Professionals website at lawncarecolorado.org.; you can click on, say, Lakewood, and they’ll list companies in Lakewood. They also have monthly tips.

If they have an in-ground irrigation system, check its operation; run it through each of its stations once and check it for broken heads, leaks, spray patterns. Generally those things are pretty easy to repair, but if a station’s not running, it could be an electrical problem.
Also check with your city water conservation bureau – some will do an irrigation audit for free. And some have rebates on sprinkler heads or smart controllers. That’s a way to improve your irrigation system and save money at the same time.

Q: Can you suggest some books that will help the first-time lawn owner?

A: I like Scotts Guide to Lawn Care. It’s unbiased and non-commercial and it doesn’t promote Scotts products.

Q: What’s your favorite grass for a public space?

A: Well, most public spaces are going to get at least some traffic, so Kentucky bluegrass.

Q: For a home lawn for a young family?

A: Again, Kentucky bluegrass. For the same use with some shady spots, fine fescues. You can blend them with the bluegrass.

Q: What lawn mistake makes you want to just grab someone and shake them?

A: Sprinkling without thinking – just setting a sprinkler system on autopilot and leaving it that way for ten years. You really have to change your clock according to the season. I’ve got a lot under drip irrigation, and I’m usually out every week checking the soil, and turning it up, down, or off. But most people, that’s not how they want to spend their time. Now there are these new smart controllers that take the thinking out of it (by adjusting to soil moisture or ET – evapotranspiration – rates). They’re a good investment that will pay itself back in water savings in two or three years.

Q: Colorado soils tend to be iron deficient. What’s the best way to fix that?

A: The iron compound that most Colorado soils need is iron EDDHA. So you have to read the fine print on your fertilizer. The ones that tend to have it tend to be the more expensive ones, so that’s a good way to narrow it down. But don’t put that on until the lawn is already greening up – mid-April or May.

Remember the raging wind this weekend that made you want to cry out, “Surrender, Dorothy”?

And then the dash of snow in the north Tuesday night, to match the dash of snow last week in the south?

Ah, yes, it’s all part of spring, along with … procrastination!

That wind, and then a slew of phone errands, kept me indoors on my weekend — which happens to be Sunday and Monday. No seeds started (though my seed packets arrived); no weeding done; no tidying, no nuthin’. But I did get the landscaper called and the lawn aerating guy called. This year, there will be a non-turf solution to the west side of my back yard, where the two dogs have pounded a racetrack into the clay soil and no turf will ever grow again. Well, I suppose turf COULD, but it would be fighting nature and the way this homeowner happens to live on her small suburban landscape.

You see, I’m currently in the Colorado State Extension Master Gardener volunteer training program. And that means every Friday from 9 a.m to 4 p.m., renowned state experts stuff my brain with so much knowledge I had to start a blog to relieve the pressure on my cranium. I take my classes on the Front Range in Boulder County, where last week CSU Extension’s Turf Specialist, Tony Koski, Ph.D., turned my stinkin’ thinkin’ about turf totally on its head. This doesn’t mean I actually know anything other than a few salient facts that might help me to NOT be the blight on my block this year. And that my fantasies of a no-mow native-grass lawn in my back yard were truly misguided — those species just won’t take the traffic two big dogs dish out. (I also know that I truly suck at identifying grass species, which seems mainly to have to do with recognizing tee-tiny cryptic little plant parts).

The real revelation in our grass class was that Kentucky bluegrass is not the enemy. Bad management of Kentucky bluegrass is the enemy. Kentucky bluegrass in the wrong place is the enemy, and a misunderstanding of what it needs can be the enemy.

The class actually has me hoping that my front lawn can actually look quite nice this year with lots of aeration and perhaps a little nitrogen. Could mean more mowing, but if we can get it leveled out … and seeded with something that tolerates the shade of the flowering crabapple and the hot sun in the patches where that shade can’t reach … mowing it shouldn’t be such a horrible hassle. In fact, given an electric mower and no gas fumes, it might even be … gasp … pleasurable.

I hate mowing. The fumes, the noise, the dirt, the smell, the clippings, and more than anything else, the prep — picking up the dog poop and moldy apples and cottonwood limbs. I did it for years as a kid — remember those hand-held clippers you used to have to use to trim around the trees and anywhere the mower couldn’t go? Oh yeah. Good times. Today, I’d rather clean someone else’s bathroom with a toothbrush than mow. So I hire it out. And I’m cheap — I don’t want to pay for it more often than every two weeks. But now, I’ve learned from Tony that this is just too infrequent to produce a good-looking lawn. Cutting too much of the grass (more than 1/3 — the classic pruning percentage) at any given time stresses the plants’ roots, and deep, healthy roots give you good drought tolerance. Tony told us that his dad mows three times a week!

So my only option is to make that front yard — with a space that’s half the square footage of what used to be in turf — healthier and greener — in both senses of that word.

And so: Aerate and seed and apply nitrogen, carefully. And make sure my aeration guy is using a seed that will do reasonably well in the conditions it’ll have to face.

OK, so I was SUCH a former turf-hater that it was even a revelation to me that there are different VARIETIES of Kentucky bluegrass. Turf experts have tested some that are deeper-rooted and thus more water-efficient than others. There also are bluegrass hybrids — Kentucky bluegrasses crossed with grasses from Texas — that are tough and better adapted to the Colorado weather. And there are grasses that might even be able to take the pounding from the paws of a hell-bent 50-pound terrier trying to beat the squirrel to the honey locust. There’s a whole lot that’s new out there.

Becky Hensley is the co-founder of Share Denver - a community craft space in Park Hill. She's also the proud Ninja-in Chief of the Denver Craft Ninjas -- a women’s crafting collective dedicated to keeping the DIY spirit alive through laughter, shared skills, and cocktails.

Colorado native Mark Montano is an international designer, artist, author and television personality. He has appeared on TLC’s “While You Were Out” and “10 Years Younger,” as well as “My Celebrity Home” on the Style Network, “She’s Moving In” on We TV, “The Tony Danza Show” on ABC, and “My Home 2.0” on Fox.